Parties are times of celebration. You may also be a fun way to network with people you do not see often or be together.
This is the season for weddings, graduations, class reunions and family gatherings. In this case, everyone knows why you are there. Take advantage of this relationship.
You know you in connection with the bride and groom at a wedding celebration, new graduates at the graduation ceremony, your class reunion years, or that your mother / father, son / daughter at a family gathering. But if you an endowment so good and so extensive that they all know what you’re doing what your company is to lie, and who your market?
Often we don’t see these people enough to keep up. So celebrations are a great relaxing time to get the word out in a low key way and have fun at the same time. And if networking is not usually your cup of tea, this is a safe environment to practice.
Obviously, you don’t want to be known as the MLM person cruising the room to recruit everyone within three feet. But, you do want them to know what you do and to become a great referral source for your business when they meet someone who is an ideal prospect for your business. They can’t help you if they don’t know what you do. Here are a few basic guidelines I suggest when you talk about work at social occasions.
- Don’t ask for names – rather leave the door open for you to followup with a phone call.
- Don’t sell – you don’t want to become persona non-grata.
- Don’t book sales appointments or bring out your datebook – followup with a phone call to do that during business hours.
- Don’t hog the conversation – If you find yourself engrossed with one person more than 30 minutes, you need to close the conversation and move on. Your listener did not come to the party to hear a sales pitch by you.
- Don’t corner anyone – As tempting as it might be to try to hook an ideal client, strategic partner or person of influence. Don’t do it. You’ll burn too many bridges.
- Do be specific about who your ideal prospect is, the person, title, company size, industry, niche, etc. – This makes it easy for your listener to relax knowing you are not targeting him.
- Do clarify what problem you solve – This will engage your listener in the benefits of your product/service.
- Do brag on one or two recent successes, opportunities, or achievements – At celebration events, everyone is in high spirits, so good news will be well received.
- Do move about the gathering and meet lots of people – if they don’t know who you are, they won’t be able to tell their friends about you.
When they remember you after the party, you want them to still like you and enjoy your company. To be memorable, it is important that you spend more time asking about them than talking about you. It’s that easy to get free advertising among people you know at all the festivities this spring.